Just when I thought I was done talking about publishing on the Kindle platform … I get a few emails today selling more how-to stuff. Yikes!
One of them is just called “Kindle Weekend Live” – it’s a WSO. I bought it…
I registered for the 6 hours of “e-classes” (not sure I’ll attend but they will be recorded.
I downloaded the pdf – which is a strung together set of emails… which will drive you nuts to read. I know I’m a bad speller and that I don’t have any grammar skills, but this is just plain ridiculous.
This 19 page document (including 2 pages with links to “other” Kindle publishing how-to products) is a disaster.
What does it include? One gal (she is a mom – short on time) emails updates on her progress for publishing a Kindle book over one weekend.
The one good thing: She is writing from Scratch. She is spilling her knowledge about one focused topic.
The other good thing: She shares that she had someone else “proof” the book… this is always – always – always a good idea.
Here Is Why I Don’t Trust The Information
This e-class course is being taught by Lina Trivedi and this is on the WSO sales page:
I looked up the book on Amazon:
This publisher may be using a “non-de-plume” – but so far she has published 2 (count ‘em) Kindle books under her own name:
Update: It looks like Lina does keep up with more information as the weeks go on – I get a ton of emails with ideas and things she is trying for promoting her books…. which is an important part of publishing – “promotion!”.
The video tututorials were really poor and I had to download them before watching… what marketer does that these days?
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The other email I received today was for another webinar teaching how to use Public Domain Magazines for Kindle products. This is from the Tony Laidig and Daniel Hall team… which I spoke about here.
Friday – June 8, 2012 they will speak about “How to use public domain magazine articles to make Kindle books real fast!”
I recommend you sign up and watch the webinar. Tony always shares good stuff!
This was in the email:
“Why should YOU be there? If you’ve been struggling with content for your Kindle books, here is a no-cost training that shows you where to find quality, proven content from magazines, how to check their copyright status and a lot more! It’s some of Tony’s best training on the topic and you’ll definitely want to check it out! BTW…almost NO ONE is using these strategies to publish on Amazon so there is a huge opportunity there for you.”
I am NOT saying that you should buy “realfastpublicdomain.com” – I haven’t so I don’t know what’s “inside”… But free training is – well – FREE!
Two Books I Recommend Adding To Your Library:
Both of these books, each cover some things I have never covered in any of my public domain related products.
This one does not need a recommendation. If you don’t have it… get it now. And every time it’s updated… get the latest version. I have a physical copy, a kindle copy and one on my computer. This is a “can’t work in public domain: without it – book:
This next book I picked up a while ago – and it IS a Good Read! This guy is a “HUGE” advocate of “adding content and editorializing your book – rendering it a “new publication”.
This book is not “new” to the market… published about 2009 so a few things are outdated… most of this book is rock solid!
Funny… he goes into great detail about publishing and yet his Kindle book has many formatting errors. It’s well worth the read… even with errors.
AND… He has published tons of books (using public domain content) on Amazon Kindle:
And he has even more published as physical books through Amazon Create Space:
The Public Domain Publishing Bible: How to Create “Royalty” Income for Life
Here are some quotes from the book:
“No information in this book is intended to imply that this is an easy business that will alleviate having a job or will make the reader rich. This is, however a business that requires very little start up cost and no full time involvement.”
” What is required are: patience, smart (not hard) work, and perseverance.”
“I must warn you do not just pick a genre because it is perceived to be popular. Do it because you believe in it and love it”
“I am sure you have seen slick Internet marketers selling courses and information on Public Domain. What they do not ell you is that the package of information is often full of inaccuracies and errors. For example, one newsletter suggests that anyone can take Public Domain information, simply change it and register it as a new, copyrighted work. the problem is that depending on the extent of the changes, your new copyright in fact might be in error.”
Much of the second half of this book is devoted to Marketing Your Books! Some of the information I actually cover in my own course “Book Publishing Empire“ -but we can All Use More Ideas For Marketing Our Books… 
That’s all I have for you today…
{ 14 comments… read them below or add one }
I stopped buying Kindle WSO’s since it seems like everyone on the WF has jumped on the bandwagon and cranking out Kindle products like crazy… There’s only a couple of Kindle authors that I listen to now… all the rest are making their money on WSO’s not Kindle publishing… some of them are big WF names and all they do is push one Kindle product after another re-hashing the same old stuff and promoting their other products… gotta beware on WF… everybody’s an expert all of a sudden… geez…
Linda´s last [type] ..How to Create Viral Content
Linda… Totally Agree! WSO is not my favorite place to find great products. With One Exception… Tiffany Dow runs some great WSO’s – Gotta love tiff.
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There are a load of garbage Kindle WSO’s out there. However I found one I really , really like a while back. It is Kindling, by Geoff Shaw. A membership that is very reasonable. It is a one time payment only-no recurring fees. If you can’t find it in his course-it’s probably not out there. He continues to add to his plethora of knowledge on a continuing basis. He is also extremely ethical. I will never need another thing again. That is how good it is.
Cindi
Aaaah, the Warrior forum. Definitely a caveat emptor (buyer beware) kind of place. There’s some really good info and a large quantity of dreck…and sometimes the good go bad. The guy Deb is talking about in “Kindle Weekend” used to put out some good stuff. Not any more, quantity over quality. The last thing I bought from him was even worse than what’s described here. Blacklisted!
On the plus side, if you’re a member of the War Room at the Warrior Forum look in the free War Room WSOs for Kindle info by Ed Lewis. There’s some good, simple explanations of what works and a template for formatting your book. The template works for a very basic book but…
The formatting is a huge problem with Kindle. Amazon’s system is insane and there’s a steep learning curve on all the things not to do/to do. Just to keep it interesting Amazon keeps changing it so a lot of the info you’ll find online is obsolete, even if it’s fairly recent.
I finally had someone on fiverr who formats ebooks all day professionally set it up for me. I should have just done that in the beginning. Lesson learned, another “best five bucks spent”.
If you want to have a look at the book it’s “How to be a School Bus Driver” by Dave Bross. You can read a good piece of it with the “look inside” feature. That one was the learning curve and took forever but I should be able to do them much more quickly now.
Do get someone to proofread it for you. You’ll be amazed at how many errors.
I lucked up there, my girlfriend worked in publishing as a proofreader years ago.
Linda,
I couldn’t agree more either! In fact there seems to be marketers who just band together to push crap on a weekly basis. Dare I say “Whoot!”
And Debra, I bought that WSO you mentioned. It was without doubt one of the three worst WSOs I EVER bought! I was actually appalled that that person had the nerve to ask money for such tat. However – it’s just another reminder not to bother with most WSOs (I did launch my first and very well respected one recently though lol!)
Dave´s last [type] ..Sky Views
Cindi… WOW – you found a gem in the mire of WSO’s.. I found the WSO and it’s still live
http://www.warriorforum.com/warrior-special-offers-forum/521163-kindling-better-than-best-kindle-training.html
I will be investing in this course… I love “good training” and can always learn more about publishing.
Thanks so much for sharing…
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Dave… Thank you for the great tips. It never occurred to me that you could get a Kindle book formatted on fivver.
I need to go look at the way things have changed in formatting for Kindle on my own product and see if an “update” is necessary.
Your Amazon Bio is toooo funny. What a great personality you have.
How To Be A School Bus Driver – Great idea for a book! And your cover is nice and clean and eye catching. Have you thought about publishing as
a CreateSpace POD book?
What are you going to publish next????
Inquiring minds want to know your “stuff”.
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Dave – WSO’s are not “ALL” bad… it’s really hard to find the “good stuff”. I’ve been encouraged for years to sell my “stuff” as WSO. Never have been interested.
What did you launch (forgive me if I should already know this – brain like a sieve)
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I bought Lina’s Kindle Weekend product which had videos embedded in the pdf that you were supposed to be able to download (not possible). Since the quality was really grainy and the videos stuck whilst the sound kept going, it kind of rendered the idea a bit useless. I sent a ticket to the support desk and Lina herself, but received a response from neither.
The whole idea is brilliant, but I don’t think I will risk another product.
olive´s last [type] ..Making Videos On The Net – Free Video Training By Andy Jenkins
“Your Amazon Bio is toooo funny. What a great personality you have.”
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I was dropped on my head as a small child…I’ve been happy (and a little different) ever since.
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“How To Be A School Bus Driver – Great idea for a book! And your cover is nice and clean and eye catching. Have you thought about publishing as
a CreateSpace POD book?”
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The cover was fiverr too. There are some truly awesome cover artists on fiverr. There’s also a good choice of different styles for different types of books.
Eventually I may go POD. So far not enough sales to encourage that. I suspect this may be a seasonal book. I’ll be interested to see if sales pick up towards the end of summer with the new school year on the horizon.
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“What are you going to publish next????”
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Next up is a labor of love.
One of my other gigs is as a glass artist. I have extensive knowledge of glass chemistry from formulating my own glasses for years and much study and experimentation. This knowledge was a closely held secret for centuries and has been lost every 50- 100 years as the secrets die with their owners.
I want to put what I know down in print so the knowledge doesn’t disappear one more time. At this point almost everyone who knows art glass chemistry is 60 or over. Unfortunately, like so much in art, there’s not much of a market for this now. Once we’re all dead though….
Hey, I can’t wait! (kidding…definitely kidding)
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“Inquiring minds want to know your “stuff”.”
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That’s the high (and low) points of my Kindle publishing technical experience. The marketing experience was pretty interesting too, with many mistakes and pitfalls along the way. More on that if anyone wants to hear it.
Dave
P.S. Thanks for the compliments!
I’m glad I didn’t buy that WSO. I had considered it but with the auction coming up tomorrow, I wanted to save some money. Besides, I spent my money on one of your products that I didn’t have yet. I bought your Book Publishing Empire. After hearing what is being said, I’m glad I changed my mind.
I bought a Kindle e-Cover Generator from her last month and then found out that it wasn’t something I download but something that was online. I was very upset by that as nothing in her sales page told you that. Oh well, hopefully I remember to go online to use it.
Marilyn aka G-Ma´s last [type] ..Thinking of Mom
Quick update – Lina emailed me today with the download links to the videos, so problem solved!
olive´s last [type] ..Making Videos On The Net – Free Video Training By Andy Jenkins
Olive… Let me know if the video’s are any good. I’d like to give credit where it’s deserved.
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What a great thread. First, thanks to Debra for sharing the information about the additional books. You are always so giving. Cindi, great resource. I signed up and am looking forward to learning more. Dave, I’m still laughing from your observation that some of the kids can be a little more than just brats.
All this great information packed into one post and comment section. Wow!